Last week, the world was focused on the Israel flotilla scandal.
It was one of those international catastrophes where details come pouring in by the minute, and so beliefs about the incident and who was at fault were solidified before what had actually happened was even confirmed.
I learned a very valuable lesson last week amidst all this:
Talking about Israel is a dangerous thing.
I work in a public place, where occasionally people will bring up things that are happening in the news. The oil spill is a big topic of conversation, as well as immigration, and as you would imagine, things can sometimes get heated.
It has been a long time, however, since I've seen people so fired up over what to me seemed like a fairly cut and dry issue.
When I first read the reports of what happened, it seemed to me that Israel completely overreacted and that they had basically slaughtered people they claimed were attacking them.
I use the term "slaughtered" because I feel that if one party has weapons and the other party doesn't, and the first party decides to use their weapons on the second party, there's a good chance everyone in the second party is going to wind up dead.
Now, I wasn't voicing this opinion because I have any direct ill will towards Israel. I would say the same if Greece or Italy boarded a boat that, admittedly, was somewhere it didn't belong, and six people wound up dead.
And yet something tells me if this were a Greek or Italian affair, I wouldn't have heard the response I got to my opinion.
I was called Anti-Semitic, a Nazi, a Nazi sympathizer, and ignorant.
Ignorant? Maybe. I realize anytime an issue gets as political as this one has, there's a very good chance that most people voicing an opinion about it are ill informed in some way.
That being said, what about my opinion made me a Nazi?
Apparently the fact that I was dumb enough to voice my opinion while there was a Jewish person within hearing distance.
My friend Jess is Jewish, and she agreed with me on most points. Jess also thinks that Israel is allowed to get away with much more than it should because regardless of what happens, it's considered the perpetual victim.
(That I have no opinion on, since I have absolutely no grasp of Israeli history or politics.)
Well, when the person within hearing distance heard Jess' opinion, they flipped out. The Nazi allegations fell on both Jess and I (I'm sure I don't need to mention how ironic that was for Jess) and the person informed us that the Israelis are God's chosen people, in case we didn't know.
That was when I sort of lost it. My belief system is shaky, and my belief in organized religion is practically non-existent, so the idea of a "chosen people" just makes my head spin.
I asked the person how her god would feel about killing all those people.
She scoffed at me and walked out.
Jess was even angrier than I was, but she told me that she's used to that sort of thing. When she tries to talk with her family about Israel, she finds that it's like discussing Nam within a military family--
Basically, not a good idea.
Unlike me, Jess actually studied Israeli history in school, and has a degree in political science, so her opinions have a lot more substance to them than mine do.
Still, she says she can never keep a rational argument going with anyone on the subject, because it always goes back to the--"But we're the chosen people" line, and how do you argue with that?
I guess the dangers of discussing Israel are the same dangers you face when arguing about gay marriage with Jesus freaks or multiple marriages with polygamists:
They think religion is their trump card, and I think it's a losing hand.
At this point, I've lost track of how many people this article has probably offended.
Told you this was dangerous territory.
It was one of those international catastrophes where details come pouring in by the minute, and so beliefs about the incident and who was at fault were solidified before what had actually happened was even confirmed.
I learned a very valuable lesson last week amidst all this:
Talking about Israel is a dangerous thing.
I work in a public place, where occasionally people will bring up things that are happening in the news. The oil spill is a big topic of conversation, as well as immigration, and as you would imagine, things can sometimes get heated.
It has been a long time, however, since I've seen people so fired up over what to me seemed like a fairly cut and dry issue.
When I first read the reports of what happened, it seemed to me that Israel completely overreacted and that they had basically slaughtered people they claimed were attacking them.
I use the term "slaughtered" because I feel that if one party has weapons and the other party doesn't, and the first party decides to use their weapons on the second party, there's a good chance everyone in the second party is going to wind up dead.
Now, I wasn't voicing this opinion because I have any direct ill will towards Israel. I would say the same if Greece or Italy boarded a boat that, admittedly, was somewhere it didn't belong, and six people wound up dead.
And yet something tells me if this were a Greek or Italian affair, I wouldn't have heard the response I got to my opinion.
I was called Anti-Semitic, a Nazi, a Nazi sympathizer, and ignorant.
Ignorant? Maybe. I realize anytime an issue gets as political as this one has, there's a very good chance that most people voicing an opinion about it are ill informed in some way.
That being said, what about my opinion made me a Nazi?
Apparently the fact that I was dumb enough to voice my opinion while there was a Jewish person within hearing distance.
My friend Jess is Jewish, and she agreed with me on most points. Jess also thinks that Israel is allowed to get away with much more than it should because regardless of what happens, it's considered the perpetual victim.
(That I have no opinion on, since I have absolutely no grasp of Israeli history or politics.)
Well, when the person within hearing distance heard Jess' opinion, they flipped out. The Nazi allegations fell on both Jess and I (I'm sure I don't need to mention how ironic that was for Jess) and the person informed us that the Israelis are God's chosen people, in case we didn't know.
That was when I sort of lost it. My belief system is shaky, and my belief in organized religion is practically non-existent, so the idea of a "chosen people" just makes my head spin.
I asked the person how her god would feel about killing all those people.
She scoffed at me and walked out.
Jess was even angrier than I was, but she told me that she's used to that sort of thing. When she tries to talk with her family about Israel, she finds that it's like discussing Nam within a military family--
Basically, not a good idea.
Unlike me, Jess actually studied Israeli history in school, and has a degree in political science, so her opinions have a lot more substance to them than mine do.
Still, she says she can never keep a rational argument going with anyone on the subject, because it always goes back to the--"But we're the chosen people" line, and how do you argue with that?
I guess the dangers of discussing Israel are the same dangers you face when arguing about gay marriage with Jesus freaks or multiple marriages with polygamists:
They think religion is their trump card, and I think it's a losing hand.
At this point, I've lost track of how many people this article has probably offended.
Told you this was dangerous territory.
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